"NEED TO UPDATE DIVORCE ACT APPARENT TO CHILDREN"

Clayton Giles’ gallant effort in Ottawa this week was all but lost in the
tide of terrorist news.

But that didn’t defuse the Calgary teen’s determination to pressure the
federal government into drafting revisions to the aging Divorce Act to put
parental custody access on a more equal footing.

Like many others in Canada, including members of a Senate-Commons committee,
Giles believes the court-interpreted laws deny fathers an equal say in the
raising of their children.

While Giles is one of the one in six Canadian kids who are children of
divorce, the 14-year-old has managed to skirt the bleak statistics; 91 per
cent of kids who commit suicide are from divorced homes, they comprise 78
per cent of young offenders, 65 per cent of teen pregnancies, 90 per cent of
runaways and 71 per cent of school dropouts.

It’s not that he’s impatient for change. Giles is merely asking for custody
and access reform which a parliamentary committee recommended – and which
Justice Minister Anne McLellan promised – more than two years ago.

The committee, chaired by Liberal MP Roger Gallaway, has advised the
government that if parents were guaranteed shared parenting rights it would
lessen the bitterness and the bankruptcies by non-custodial parents.

It might not result in a 50-50 living arrangement in each and every case,
but it would give both parents the legal right to have equal say over their
child’s upbringing.

Indeed, the Liberal government promised to adopt it and dozens of other
amendments to the cat. But it’s been all talk and no action.

Giles, who launched a 19-day hunger strike to protest a 1995 court ruling
that granted custody to his mom, figures he’s been patient long enough.

This week, he cycled across Canada armed with thousands of backers on a
petition to present to Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Divorce is always
hard, he said, “but when children are used as pawns by warring parents and
adversarial lawyers, the children are destroyed that much faster.”

McLellan was expected to change the federal legislation in three
child-related areas: custody, access and support payments. Remember,
McLellan. You promised.